Oh, and brokers are there ready to pick up the phone and get it done.
Government role
Government should encourage The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors to extend the current EPC assessor network for surveyors to undertake property assessment at the point of refinancing to ensure EPC coverage is as full as possible.
The lenders could be responsible for obtaining the report as part of their property valuation survey.
Brokers would advise and write the decarbonisation mortgages for their customers using the normal application and underwriting processes available from the chosen lenders.
The property owner would engage with certified/accredited providers to purchase works for the supply and installation of products to meet the recommendations of the EPC assessor.
And what about a mortgage deal where the interest charged drops after you have had the energy reducing work done on your home? The added incentive of a monthly saving after the insulation engineers depart after changing all your lightbulbs and electrical fittings to low energy.
National push
Make no mistake this will require a big, national push, requiring buy-in from multiple stakeholders: the Treasury, FCA, lenders, brokers, house purchasers, surveyors.
It would also require the sort of expert construction businesses able to execute ceiling, wall and floor insulation, through low energy lighting installation, to heating controls, solar water heating and solar photovoltaic panels.
How many outfits do you know who understand and could dig effective ground-source heat exchange systems?
I, for one, am determined to try to get this off the ground.
It is valuable economic activity that would raise our faltering GDP. It would create high-value, skilled jobs.
We have already spoken to and piqued interest from large lenders including Barclays, Nationwide, and One Savings Bank as well as asset managers BlackRock, Citi and Legal and General.
I am sure other companies have also raised this as an area that requires urgent development.
But in the interest of getting proper traction, we will need construction companies, the utilities and asset managers to weigh in and get involved.
Now is the time to do it. And I will be better able to look my two kids in the eye when I get home after a day’s work if I succeed in moving things forward.
If not, I will be swimming home from the office in two decades' time.
Ross Boyd is founder of Dashly.com
